Mie travel guides: Ise Jingu, pearl coasts, ninja country, and the quiet shores between Nagoya and the Kii Peninsula.
Seki-juku in Kameyama, Mie is the 47th Tokaido post town and, by the city account, the only one whose historic townscape survives whole: what to see, the road forks to Ise and Nara, access and when to go.
Ise Jingu in late November — pre-koyo blue skies, the vast Naiku cedar forest, the 101.8 m Uji Bridge torii, and Akafuku Honten on Oharaimachi where the same recipe has been made since 1707. A Japanese pilgrimage guide in Nobu first-person.
The Kumano Kodo is not a single path, but a network of ancient pilgrimage routes that crisscross the Kii Peninsula. For over a thousand years, emperors and commoners alike have walked these trails, seeking spiritual purification in the sacred heartland…
Field notes, weekly
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Nearly every image on Hidden Japan Gems was photographed by me on a Sony α7 across five years of walking Japan; a few licensed photos fill the gaps. Please don't re-use my photos without permission — reach out if you'd like to.
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